World Green City Award 2022:  Hyderabad recently won the overall 'World Green City Award 2022' and another in the category 'Living Green for Economic Recovery and Inclusive Growth.'

Key Points:

• The Indian city bagged the prestigious World Green City Awards 2022 at the International Association of Horticulture Producers (AIPH) 2022 World Green City Awards 2022 held in Jeju, South Korea on October 14.
• Hyderabad beat major cities around the world, including Paris (France), Bogota (Colombia), Mexico City (Mexico), Montreal (Canada), and Fortaleza (Brazil) to receive World Green City Award 2022 – the best across all six categories.

The six categories of award are -

1. Living Green for Biodiversity
2. Living Green for Climate Change
3. Living Green for Health and Wellbeing,
4. Living Green for Water
5. Living Green for Social Cohesion
6. Living Green for Economic Recovery and Inclusive Growth

• Hyderabad also bagged the award in the ‘Living green for economic recovery and inclusive growth’.
• It has been awarded for its efforts at creating systems and solutions that allow all city residents to overcome economic distress and thrive.
• In this category, the greening of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) was submitted for Hyderabad’s nomination.
• The city was adjourned the grand winner in the overall category for the initiative “Green Garland to the State of Telangana (Telangana Ku Haritha Haram)”.
• It was recognized as the global leader in nature-oriented approaches to city design, function and form.

About Outer Ring Road"

• Outer Ring Road (ORR), officially called the Jawaharlal Nehru Outer Ring Road in Hyderabad is called the “Green Necklace to the State of Telangana”.
• It is a 158 km long 8-lane ring road expressway which encircles Hyderabad.
• It caters to the speed of up to 100 km per hour and eases connectivity between various national highways from Hyderabad to Vijayawada and Warangal along with the state highways.

Implementation:

• The project was implemented by the state government of Andhra Pradesh through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL).

Objective:

• The objectives of the project are as follows:
• Minimizing pollution in the city
• Reducing congestion Providing quicker access to key parts of Hyderabad and various urban nodes outside the city by connecting national highways and state highways.

About  AIPH:

• In 1948, following the end of World War II, a group of representatives from the national grower associations of Western Europe came together with the goal of rebuilding the bridges that had been burned by European horticulturists.
• They were motivated by this ambition to form the Association International of Horticulture Producers (AIPH), which laid the groundwork for the current global community that exists today also.  
• The organization strives for a world in which humanity, technology, and nature exist in a healthy and stable equilibrium.